Kathleen Kane confident in her re-election

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, speaks during a one on one interview Tuesday July 1, 2014 at Strawberry Square in Harrisburg.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane, speaks during a one on one interview Tuesday July 1, 2014 at Strawberry Square in Harrisburg. (Chris Knight / SPECIAL TO THE MORNING CALL)

Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (TNS)

Kathleen Kane's star is fading, but she voices certainty about re-election.

Attorney General Kathleen Kane acknowledges some "bumps in the road" from legal and political challenges, but pledged to finish the remaining two years of her term as the first Democrat and first woman to serve as Pennsylvania's top legal officer.

"I've done nothing wrong," Kane said Friday during an interview at the Pennsylvania Society gathering in Manhattan, where speculation persisted this weekend about her career.

A statewide grand jury in Montgomery County is investigating whether Kane, 48, of Scranton, illegally leaked grand jury material to the Philadelphia Daily News involving a 2009 investigation in an effort to get back at a former prosecutor who left her office.

According to Saturday's Philadelphia Inquirer, Pennsylvania Chief Justice Ronald D. Castille told reporters at the New York gathering that one of the leaked documents, a prosecutor's memo, should have been confidential.

"It was a detective's statement," Castille told two reporters, including one from the Philadelphia Inquirer. Kane could not immediately be reached for comment, the newspaper said.

Experts say the grand jury could decide to take no action, recommend prosecution or set a hearing in motion on whether Kane should be held in contempt of court. Kane testified she was aware of the leak but contends it was not grand jury material covered by secrecy laws.

"I'll make it through my tenure. I'm confident in my re-election," Kane said Friday. "Everybody hits bumps in the road. We're making our team stronger so we can make Pennsylvania a better place. I stand steadfast that I have not done anything wrong."

Kane recently replaced her inner circle of advisers and communications experts after a spate of bad publicity.

Her new team includes people associated with former Democratic President Bill Clinton and potential presidential candidate Hillary Clinton.

Kane's chief of staff is Arkansas native Blake Rutherford, a lawyer who worked most recently for a firm founded by Bill Clinton's former chief of staff. Rutherford served as chief of staff to the Arkansas attorney general.

The Pennsylvania Society's annual gathering at the Waldorf Astoria in New York draws the state's political elite: elected officials, lobbyists, attorneys and corporate CEOs. Kane talked privately with the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review and the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Last year, Kane's political star shone so strongly that many speculated at the event about her potential for a U.S. Senate run or to become governor down the road.

Now — as a result of damaging publicity over her failure to prosecute a sting case in which lawmakers were videotaped while taking cash, and assorted misstatements she made — her political future appears uncertain.

"It's hard for me to see how she's not done for," said James Broussard, a Lebanon Valley College history professor with Republican Party ties.

Yet more than a half-dozen people interrupted Kane's sit-down with the newspapers to hug her or shake her hand, offering encouragement.

Still, she is not the "rock star" of the Democratic Party she once was.

Kane spoke passionately about how the turmoil from her office is affecting her and her family, calling it regrettable.

"It's a lesson in life they'll have to learn sooner or later," she said about her two boys.

Kane's lawyers maintain that she is under legal restrictions that prohibit her from discussing specifics of sealed court orders.

She said Pennsylvanians need to understand that taking over the Attorney General's Office was akin to "turning the Titanic around on a dime. And that was not an easy task."

She has exposed pornographic emails shared on office computers by prosecutors and agents.

One of those who sent porn to the office was Supreme Court Justice Seamus McCaffery, who resigned.

Some of the email transmissions continued under Kane, who fired more than a half-dozen employees.